Mussel protein crosslinking agent

Senior Associate RobertBradbury writes "Eurekalert has a story about scientists at Purdue who are starting to unravel how mussels can stick to almost anything. It appears that iron is used as an essential crosslinking agent between the protein(s) in the adhesive. The common crosslinking agent in proteins is sulfur but the bonds may be weaker than those that iron provides. This may give nanotechnology oriented chemists an additional strategy for producing cross-linked polymers to develop Stages 2 & 3 of one nanotechnology development path as discussed by Drexler in Table 16.1 of Nanosystems."